Linda and I had a 12:40PM departure with Delta Airlines
from Kansas City, changed planes in Atlanta and arrived in Nassau about
8PM. After passing through immigration, picking up our luggage and clearing
customs, we walked out of the terminal and were met by Patrick, a driver
from Sandra Ferguson taxi. He was quite courteous and did his best to turn
the ride into a tour, though that was a little difficult seeing much after
dark.

We were staying at the British Colonial Hilton,
on the beach near the heart of Nassau. I might as well go ahead and assemble
all of my comments about the hotel right now, rather than string them across
the trip as they happened. The Hilton occupies a fine historic building,
located conveniently for exploring the downtown. The front desk staff and
concierge were very nice.

But the downside outweighed those good things. The floors
were always sandy and the sink leaked. Some of the light bulbs were burned
out and were not replaced during our visit. After our initial check in,
we never had enough towels or washcloths. The hotel restaurant was extremely
slow (eggs and bacon took over 30 minutes) and quite expensive. We had
to ask repeatedly for things like beverage refills.

There were also additional, unexpected charges when we
checked out, including $30/day for energy and $10/day for the shoddy housekeeping,
on top of the tips we had left in the room daily. Neither of these charges
was listed on the Delta Vacations web site where I booked the trip.

After we returned home, there was yet another spurious
charge, for the "free" wifi which is advertised as being in the hotel lobby.

It took 7 weeks and getting Hilton corporate involved
to get those charges reversed.

These things weren't enough to ruin our stay, but I would
not stay at the British Colonial Hilton again or recommend the British
Colonial Hilton to others.

Hilton Guest Room

Hilton bathroom

Getting back to the trip... With this being a long travel
day, we had planned to just have supper at Señor Frog's, next door
to the hotel, but Frog's was closed for a private party. We walked through
the neighborhood looking for something interesting and settled on Conch
Fritters Bar & Grill, which was directly across the street from
the Hilton.

Conch Fritters' menu was a bit limited, particularly the
drink menu, but our server was fun and worked hard to ensure that we enjoyed
our meal and had a good time. We started with the appetizer the bar &
grill is named for and Linda had the ($40) Seafood Platter with cracked
lobster & conch, grouper fingers and fried shrimp. I had the ($16)
jerked chicken. Both meals were served with French fires and mine came
with a very nice, creamy coleslaw. I ended up having coleslaw several times
during this trip and all of the coleslaw which I had in Nassau was good.

The best items in the meal were the grouper fingers and
the battered & deep fried lobster. I probably would have been less
impressed with the same dishes later in the trip - it seemed like almost
every restaurant used the exact same batter when deep frying seafood.

We returned to the hotel and walked down to the shore
for a few photos before turning in.